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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Crisis and Emergency Management Newsletter Website |
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March
2006
Volume
10 - Number 2 |
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The risks of terrorism are without question the vulnerability of a given nation through acts of mass distortion. These acts could be represented as physical damage to infrastructure (buildings, nuclear plants, bridges, airports, dams, etc.), an unbalance or breakdown of an economic system (airline industry after the 9/11 attacks on the U.S.), damage to the political structure of a nation (suicide bombings in Iraq, preventing the establishment of a democratic government), sociological damage (cultural and religious deviation) and ultimately the unparalleled psychological scars left by destruction such as paranoia and emotional instability. Terrorism has surpassed the ethical limits extremists around the world utilize to achieve their goals. Islamic extremism for example was originated by geopolitical interests within groups with different perceptions and doctrines about religious views. The erroneous interpretation of Islam plays the most important role in developing past, current and future Islamic extremists, which take advantage of religious edicts to achieve their radical purposes such as killing innocent people or exterminating members of dissimilar political parties. We must examine the source of such rotten ideology and rationale to be able to recognize the risks we are exposed to and be able to understand the motives that drive terrorist groups to perform the most reprehensible acts in human history. For decades, terrorism has lied its foundations within the scope of political interests; the oppression applied by these groups through atrocious attacks makes the international community vulnerable and forces it to strictly comply to their requests, as in the case of the attacks of the American embassy and the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983, forcing the United states to withdraw its peacemaking forces right after; the attacks at the World Trade Center in New York in 1993, the dozens of attacks to U.S. interests around the world and most recently the attacks of September 11, 2001 that left billions of dollars in economic loses and more than 3,000 people dead. The question is why the government did not put enough attention to the signs surrounding the close proximity to bigger attacks and destruction on U.S. soil by Islamic Extremists? Why did it take so long for the common citizen to be able to process terms such as Jihad or Islamic Extremism? Why the government did not take action on terrorists sponsoring groups by launching a War on Terror before a bigger strike took place? The risk facing the United States and the rest of the world is sole responsibility of the intelligence applied by the government at any given time, as well as the education of the media, public and policy makers to develop a strong analysis on terrorist’s philosophy. The 9/11 commission report acknowledges the failure by the intelligence community to identify the presence of sleeper terrorists around the world and ironically on U.S. soil. The acknowledgement by U.S. officials about Middle Eastern flight students learning how to flight but not how to land an airplane makes us wonder of how vulnerable we are for a terrorist attack. We don’t have to go that far in time to see how vulnerable we could be to the risk of terrorism if the wrong decisions are taken. The Bush administration is backing up the takeover of operations of 6 ports around the U.S. including New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Miami and New Orleans by Dubai Ports World an Arab company from the United Arab Emirates, a place where operations where supported for the hijackers of the 9/11 attacks. The Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff told CNN "We have to balance the paramount urgency of security against the fact that we still want to have a robust global trading system.” Even if strict terms are imposed by the U.S. government to handle the operations, the risk of terrorists’ infiltration in my opinion is the top priority to consider, this is an issue of national security and the risks associated with it could have devastating effects. Perhaps the economical contributions of Middle Eastern states through oil and other resources are enough to mollify the U.S. government, and take advantage of good and temporary diplomatic relations; relations that are dominated by religious clerics who impose doctrines and ideologies through politics not visible to the west, then injecting their influence into American territory and blinding its sight from their true extremist purpose. Are we waiting for a nuclear weapon to be planted in Washington, D.C. to realize the risks of having an open system? |